Does anyone remember the old time bingo games that were played at home with the family? These were the games where the old box with the bingo cards and number sets would come out after a big family dinner on the weekend or at a holiday. Invariably Dad was the caller and he took his place at the head of the table entrusted with all the numbers in a tub. For some reason Dad was the only one ever trusted to call letters in a fair way that ensured the equal treatment of all players despite the sibling rivalry that was always at the forefront of family bingo games.



Home bingo games usually meant an assortment of items for the marking of cards. Many of us will remember using buttons from Grandma's button jar to mark the numbers on our card. One of the children would invariably want to fish out all the red buttons to use rather than just taking a miscellaneous handful like the rest of us would do. These home versions of the game were a lot of fun until someone upset their card and their buttons went skittering across the table or onto the floor. Anyone who remembers these kinds of bingo games also recalls at least a couple of incidents of someone going to bed crying after such a spill.

Modernizing Bingo

Some families had bingo cards that were not re-useable and they didn't need to use the button jar to mark their cards. These families were the modern ones who were able to buy the paper cards to play with and then toss away. For these families, bingo games then meant gathering up all the stubby old pencils from every cabinet in the house and then making sure they were all sharpened up for play. These bingo games found family members putting an X through all the numbers that were called until someone had a bingo. The smaller children usually needed a little help with their bingo games and not putting X's on numbers that hadn't been called yet. This was a part of the whole scenario and the family game embraced all of it.

Reminiscences and Bingo Memories

Bingo games of the old home variety make a lot of people feel quite nostalgic about the game as a whole in all its forms. While we may be playing quite a different version now that we are online but in our hearts we are still playing the old bingo games around the kitchen table with mismatched buttons. That is part of what makes online bingo games so successful a gaming industry. It is basically the same game and whenever we play bingo, we still have warm memories of it on some level of our consciousness.

The next time you get online for a few bingo games, take a minute to think back to your earliest gaming memories. Who was there? What were the cards like? Chances are that you might think of something or someone you haven't for a long time. It's probably a good little trip to make.